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So you have booked that low fare flight a hotel and your itinerary is all set, all you need to do now is pack your things for that much awaited vacation.

I used to be panicky when it comes to packing things up. I would pack loads of clothes and accessories that are meant for events that could possibly happen.... up there in my head.

Oh yeah I pack like crazy whenever I go out of town, Until I had a life changing experience came to me. I started to be more carefree and adventurous but not to a point of irresponsibility.

Since then I was able to make a formula on how to make my checklist. Let me share them to you.

how to roll clothes when packing from goeurope.about.com

1. Know where you are going

Research on the weather of the place that you are going to whether it is out of the country or domestic. Places may have extreme weather conditions like if you are near a dessert where it gets really hot during the day and extremely cold at night. Domestic destinations isn't an exemption to this, just think of Batanes where you could experience mild winter or the Cagayan region where it gets really hot.

I have been reading a lot of blogs lately, and I see it something good for me as it encourages me to read and write more.

Here are some of the things that I noticed that makes me keep on reading these articles online.

Teleporting

I really admire writers who take their readers to a roller coaster ride and takes them into where their stories are. I first experienced this kind of writing with John Grisham's "The Lawyer", a lot of people say that it is actually nothing compared to his other works. But the point is, I am not a person who's reading is on his most enjoyed hobbies' list so for a person to put me into a page turning experience is something else.

The blog Transcendental Tourist ( http://ajpoliquit.wordpress.com ) is a good example of this. Every time I read his posts, It feels like I am traveling with him. It lets you experience an array of emotions that you would feel as if you are the one who's experiencing what is written.

This the day! I'm on my way to the airport, at centennial terminal of the Manila Airport to be specific. we had to be there for at least two hours earlier to make sure that we can board the plane on time. I'm late.... actually I arrived an hour earlier but this is the first time that I'm gonna ride a plane and I dont actually know how to check in. I saw my companion, Dindo, who is also my manager inside the check in area already.

The terminal is a little small so the guards had to check for my passport to see if I'm the one who's going to board and they won't let any guests come in.

So there we were at the check-in counter, we asked the information desk where do we go so we could get our seats and have our Luguage checked in.

But wait! I think there is something wrong, as i can clearly see the impression on the officers face, then the officer said "do you have your tickets with you?". All along I thought what the US office faxed us was enough for us to get into the plane but instead we needed to go to the ticketing office and secure our electronic tickets!

It has been a while since I broke free from the corporate chains and focused on my passion in photography. So far I am happy with what I am doing, I am satisfied with my work but still acknowledges that I have so much to improve and to learn.

I love the fact that most of my weekends for the past months were mostly booked, meaning that business is really doing good.

But it has struck me that I have been doing much less to almost nothing during weekdays.

I felt like I wanted to go back to work again, should I? Maybe I should but I dont think that I would want to go back to being on a management position. I just don't think its worth it.

Okay so maybe I'll go back and get a job so I could have more funds traveling.... hmmm.... that ain't such a bad idea ey?

With all these discussion going on about the controversial RH Bill, we tend to forget about the people who actually are struggling still to have a child.

Of all the Philippine fiestas during the month of May celebrating fertility, Unlike other fiestas that celebrates fertility in harvest, The Obando fertility festival celebrates fertility of humans to bear a child.

Obando Church, San Pascual Baylon Parish with the former convent converted into a school on its side.

We made this video for Bustos' Minasa Festival Last January. The song was written by Dionisio Sumera and was performed by SkaBeche a ska band from Bulacan. It was incidental that I became part of this music video, I shot the second scene (from the lead vocalist coming down the stairs then giving respects till he leaves the room), the closing scene (where he woke up in a factory and bites a piece of the minasa cookie) and the still pictures used at the closing credits of the video.

The music video aims to promote the town of Bustos Bulacan and its products and tourist spots.

Years ago I started another blog to tell the story of my trip to the United States. However I got so tied up with work back then so I wasn't able to finish the story.

Now, I will attempt to complete the story that changed my views in life and where I got to own my first camera. So let me begin on how it all started......

The Miracle

It was just another ordinary day. My shift was almost done, suddenly the phone rang. I answered with our company's standard greeting and learned that our client was on the other end of the line.

She was asking for some reports sent to her by the end of our shift but I couldn't resist in asking her something that has been bothering me for quite sometime already. There has been a series of emails from her asking details about the nearest airport from where I was. I was on the thinking that she would be coming over to observe us on how we do our jobs.

So I mustered all the courage that I have and casually asked her "So when are you coming over?". She laughed a bit and answered back with a question, "didn't Mike tell you anything?". At that point I was kind o f confused on the situation since nothing has been said to us by our Client Director, Mike.

Yes life is not fair. Doing good things to others does not assure you that good things would happen to you as well. Being honest does not assure repentance or loyalty. Life is not fair at all. people will forget about you once they are done with you (well okay maybe not all) once that they don't have any use for you. so why don't you give a damn to what others would say to you. its a dog-eat-dog world. so go ahead and shamelessly reach for your own happiness.

We were on our way to one of the churches on our visita iglesia list. While we were walking since there were no jeeps en-route to our destination, I noticed this old structure from a far nicely preserved.

As we approached the structure we learned that it is the Lumban Municipal Hall. It felt good that a local government preserved a piece of history instead of altering it.

Lumban is a 4th class Municipality and is one of the oldest town in Laguna.

Step back into the 19th century and relive the era where elegance was part of everyone's daily living in the Philippines.

I was invited to Taal, Batangas' first ever El Pasubat Festival and I was so excited to see the town, as I have heard that they have beautiful heritage houses.

I took the Jam bus in Buendia, Makati and arrived at the bus terminal in Lemery, Batangas at about 7PM. The bus usually passes by the Taal town proper but due to the festival, the local government closed the main road. I then negotiated with a tricycle driver for a special trip (50 pesos) to where we will be staying for the night in taal.

The driver thought that I was a local and I on the other hand thought that he knew where I was going. I told him to take me to Marcela Agoncillo's house as the place we will be staying is just three houses from the said landmark.

As we were driving around, it was sad to learn that most of the people that we asked for directions didn't knew where the house actually is.

We drove around a little more and finally we found it. Welcome to Villa Tortuga!

Villa Tortuga is an old Andalusian type house situated beside the Pansipit River. The name of the house came from the Spanish word "Tortuga" which means Turtle in English. This is because it is said that turtles lives on the river beside it, and true enough some of the staff of the house caught a turtle in the river earlier during the day, they then set the turtle back to the river the following day.

I knocked at the door of this completely unassuming house. I started thinking that no one could hear me from where i was, so I decided to go inside the property since the gate was open. I started to call attention again and fortunately Mr. Rogie Reyes was able to hear me. He then told me to go upstairs.

As I enter the main door a grand staircase welcomed me. Filled with big shells on the side this grand stair case leads up to the main floor of the house.

I was waiting for my mom to finish using the net book that I use to surf (I use a netbook to surf to save on electricity as a desktop computer uses too much energy) when I tried to clear my table from all of the clutter on it so I could edit some photos on my desktop, when I found my old Digicam.

I looked for spare batteries to try it. I laughed a lot thinking that the small 1.5 inch LCD display was enough for me way back.

It is an Olympus digital point and shoot camera that I bought at Best Buy on Victory lane in Burbank on a business trip in California on 2006. It's a 5.1 megapixel camera which I think was not so bad back at those time. I didn't thought that I could ever afford to buy one, as one of the office guys told me that I could save about a couple of thousand pesos only if I buy in the states.

However, to my surprise the camera costs less than $130 which if I converted at that time to Philippine pesos was just a little over 6,000 pesos. When I got back here in Manila I went around and canvas on how much my camera costs here. Again I was surprised with how much I saved! The camera costs 18,000 pesos at that time and I got it at a third of its price.

I feel so blessed that I got the to own one of these. I owe it to this small point-and-shoot camera the start of my photography career. With this small camera I was able to enter the world of light and show everyone how I see the world through my eyes.

I always encourage people who loves to get into photography to start even with just a poin-and-shoot cam as you can learn a lot of things that you can later apply when you have your big cam already.

here are some of the photos I took with this camera.

May be my passion for my art was the driving force for me to create such images even with such basic equipments. I am grateful to this camera for letting me in the world of photography.